Five quick thoughts: Spurs’ trades didn’t make Lakers any shorter

The Spurs have been receiving a lot of favorable national buzz since the trade deadline after adding Stephen Jackson, Boris Diaw and Patty Mills to their rotation.

The extra players are nice, but they haven’t made the Spurs any better equipped to face the Los Angeles Lakers’ height that has always been their biggest advantage against them.

The Lakers took full advantage of their size in a resounding 98-84 victory over the Spurs Wednesday night.

With Kobe Bryant out of the lineup, the Lakers were forced to work inside-out with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum as their offensive focal points. In a weird way, it might have made them even better equipped to attack the Spurs than if Bryant was in the lineup.

The Lakers outrebounded them, 60-33. Bynum grabbed a career-best 30 caroms as it seemed like no Spur was able to contest him inside.

“I was just going to get them,” Bynum said. “They missed a lot of jump shots. They shot quickly and they were coming off the rim nice and soft.”

Gasol added 11 rebounds to go with 21 points as the Lakers limited the Spurs to one offensive rebound in the game. It came with 7:34 left in the third quarter when Tony Parker grabbed Kawhi Leonard’s missed 3-point shot.

“He got a lot of position rebounds,” Spurs captain Tim Duncan said about Bynum. “Obviously, he’s a big body. He ended with eight offensive rebounds, and that hurt us, but all in all we just didn’t play well enough.

“Our focus wasn’t there, for whatever reason. We just didn’t play well enough for long enough.”

After the Spurs’ third straight loss to the Lakers, Green’s assessment was an understatement.

The Spurs can look overmatched at times against the league’s biggest teams. And it could end up being the team’s biggest liability and concern heading into the playoffs.

A few other takes from the Spurs’ worst home performance of the season follow.

The Lakers are a different team with Ramon Sessions running the point than they were with Derek Fisher. They seem faster as Sessions can get to the paint much easier. It’s also a bigger challenge for Parker to defense, knowing he has concern that the point guard can get past him. It makes them a different team to defense and a more challenging one.

Metta World Peace has the reputation as one of the league’s streakiest shooters. Case in point was the start of the season, when he missed 25 of his first 27 3-pointers. But with Bryant out of the lineup, the Lakers desperately needed some outside firepower. After Peace missed his first 3-pointer, he kept shooting and hit his next three. You could tell his confidence and that of his team was buoyed. It was exactly what they need with Bryant on the bench in street clothes.

How much did the rest game Monday night in Utah help “The Big Three” in their next game Wednesday night? Tim Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili combined for 27 points on 12-for-34 shooting with six turnovers.

Coming into the rugged three-game homestand, the middle game against Memphis looked like the most difficult — particularly with Bryant out of the lineup and playing on the end of a back-to-back. The same length that confounded the Spurs against the Lakers will be on display Thursday night when Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol visit with Memphis. The Spurs must drastically improve their rebounding if they have any hopes against the surging Grizzlies, who won their fourth straight game Wednesday night.